Jeffrey Dahmer Interview Segment

Someone sent this video to me about Jeffrey Dahmer as an example of how atheism can cause violence, since Dahmer talks about his belief that you can’t be a good person without God.

Here’s the rambling, disjointed response I sent back:

Hmmm… well, the video clearly showed that he was definitely a believer, raised in a religious household. His atheism amounted to a couple years that his father “fell away” from the idea of a creator. Jeffrey Dahmer didn’t seem to be anything close to an atheist. Are there any examples out there of murderers who were raised in non-religious households and/or chose not to believe in God for a notable portion of their lives?

According to this page: http://www.adherents.com/people/pd/Jeffrey_Dahmer.html There’s a consensus that Dahmer had a deep hatred for homosexuals, yet he was a homosexual himself, and the video made it clear that he felt as a child it was something to repress. What could have instilled him with that attitude if not Christian anti-gay values?

He also mentioned accountability for actions, but that is exactly what motivates me and many other atheists, is accountability for actions. I recall around the turn of the century, when I became a hard-core believer in God, I felt like anything I did didn’t matter. My old desire to make the world a better place just kind of drifted away because I figured that God would take care of everything, and if I did something to hurt someone or hurt society I felt like I could just shrug it off because I had been following God (or The Great Spirit – I kinda had different names for Him), and letting Him guide my decisions, and figured any harm I did must be part of His plan. It felt absolutely wonderful, I’ll admit, but looking back I realize my main motivation was to avoid that sense of urgent responsibility I’d always had to help prevent things like global warming and nuclear war.

I remember one article I wrote during that time for my first website was about serial killers and I said, “Hey, whatever floats your boat”. I figured they’re all just a part of this big, magical experience and we should embrace the bad along with the good because it all has a purpose and it all serves to balance everything out. I wasn’t promoting serial killing for sure, but I essentially said that if you are certain it’s what’s right for you, then go for it. It’ll just help make the world more interesting in the long run, and the spirits must have some purpose for you and some reason behind it. I removed the article after a few months upon re-reading and re-thinking it, and now I can’t believe that I seriously used to think that way. That’s just one way the concept of God and spirits warped my sense of reality. I have a bunch of other examples too. It’s what was going on in my head during that time, more than anything else, that makes me such a devoted atheist now.